While I love rustic free-form loaves with a bold, crackling crust, complex flavor, and a crumb riddled with holes, my family does like whole wheat bread with a denser crumb, softer crust, and low acidity, in a shape good for sandwiches and toast. I hope that I was able to deliver something to satisfy that need, providing a healthful loaf with the previously mentioned qualities.
Here are some pictures of the loaves, including some crumb shots.
A couple notes
-The loaves were brushed with olive oil before and halfway through the bake, to ensure a soft crust
-The loaves were covered with tinfoil for the last 10 minutes of the bake; another effort to have a loaf with a soft crust
-Everything was done at room temperature, to keep the acidity low.
-Hydration was 92%
-Naturally leavened, no commercial yeast at all
Overall, a fun bake that delivered bread to suit my family's needs. Although I will admit, I did sneak a slice, and it made excellent toast!
I'm guessing the majority of you prefer the sort of bread I described first; the kind with a bold crust, open crumb, and complex flavor. But do you ever feel like having a slice of good "sandwich" bread?
- blackhatbaker's Blog
- Log in or register to post comments
Very high hydration. Is this a no knead bread? Can you give me the recipe and method?
This was based on the formula for whole what bread from Tartine Bread.
Feed 50g of starter with 200g of cool water and 200g whole wheat flour. Let ripen for about 12 hours.
Mix all of the leaven (assuming you have a separate container with your starter) with 1 kilogram of whole wheat flour and 904g of 70°F water. Mix until a wet, shaggy dough is formed, and let rest for one hour and fifteen minutes. After the rest, add 21g of salt, and mix slowly for about two minutes by hand. Transfer to a square plastic container and bulk ferment for 4 hours. Stretch and fold every half hour, and do this throughout the entire fermentation. Divide into two loaves, and tightly preshape into rounds. Let rest for 15 minutes, then into a fat cylinder using structural folds. Spritz with water, and top with poppy seeds.
I decided to under proof these a little for a denser crumb, so try 1 hour and 45 minutes at 74°F, depending on the health of your starter. Brush with olive oil, and bake with steam at 475 for 30 minutes. Brush with olive oil again. Turn heat down to 450, and bake 20 more minutes, covering the loaves tinfoil for the final ten minutes. Let cool and rest overnight so the crumb can set.
The flavor will likely depend on the feeding schedule of your starter; I feed mine quite frequently, so my loaves are more mild. Try it out, and see how it goes.
Happy baking,
blackhatbaker
Less handling. But I'm going to give it a go.
Thank you so much and if mine turn out half as good as yours I'd be doing ok.
The first time I baked from Tartine Bread, I diligently made my 400 grams of leaven and then used all of it in my dough. However, the formula only requires that you use 200 grams of the leaven and not the full 400 grams.
Sooo, if you in fact used 400 grams of leaven when you used "all of the leaven", congratulations....you made a bread he never intended to be baked. But, you were not the first to do so!
I want to bake a 500g loaf. I've never understood building far more starter than goes into a recipe. Can we clarify how much I'll need and the bakers percentages?
Feed 25g of your starter with 100g of water and 100g of flour. Use all of the leaven. Mix the dough with 500g of flour, 452g water, and 10.5g salt. Follow the same procedures from the regular formula.
Believe it or not, I always use the greater leaven amount. It started as a mistake, but when I used the actual 200g, I didn't find the results to be as satisfying. So, I prefer to use 40% leaven as opposed to 20%, and use slightly cooler water. I find the flavor to be better with more leaven, and i also like that there is more whole wheat flour ( in the basicnloaf). It ended up being a happy mistake, I guess!
Well done. The crust is fabulous. I'd develop the gluten more for this type of loaf. A free standing loaf benefits from a burst of surrounding heat, which opens up the crumb quite well, which is what lacks with a pan loaf. Add more folds to your dough and do not degas too much while shaping. Other than that, you loaf looks superb!
Khalid
Thanks for the tips, Khalid! I probably went a bit overboard with degassing the dough for a dense crumb, and just shaping it without additional degassing would probably have been better. I did use lots of folds, but do you think some hand mixing before bulk fermentation would help get a better gluten network?
Thanks for the help,
blackhatbaker
Sounds like you've developed sufficient gluten. As you said, a little degassing is all that is needed.
Khalid
Thsi is exactly what you wan tto do if you want to make a soft sandwich bread with little tang. cloesd crumb,and soft crumb. Now you can work up to 100% whole wheat at 100% hydration :-) Has to taste great.
Happy baking.
Thanks, dabrownman! I might try a 100% whole wheat, 100% hydration hearth loaf, because of your suggestion. Maybe an open crumb could be achieved? I shouldn't get my hopes up though.
Happy baking,
blackhatbaker
It won't be as open as a 100% bread or AP flour but that isn't the goal. It can still be relatively open, soft and moist - and worth the effort - I say ....give it a go!
You're converting me with this bake, I am not a sandwich bread leaning person but this looks delicious! Whole wheat goodness and perfect crumb for a toasty sandwich! Well done!
Thanks, Kiseger! I did like this loaf because, while being pretty different from hearth loaves, it still did have some of those similar flavors that I always love in a good hearth loaf. I agree, I'm not always a big sandwich bread fan, but this one was a little different. Try it out ( I have the formula in the comments), and you can always alter the formula to suit your individual tastes.
Blackhatbaker